Cal's opening win stings

Bears lose quarterback, backup goes 0-for-10 in ugly rout of Hornets
Bruce Adams, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, September 4, 2005
Cal coach Jeff Tedford wasn't in a celebratory mood after his team won its season opener -- with good reason. It wasn't just sloppy play in Cal's 41-3 win over Sacramento State Saturday at Memorial Stadium that left Tedford blue.
The noted quarterback guru has a quarterback crisis on his hands. Starting quarterback Nate Longshore left the game with a broken ankle and is probably out for three months. The injury came just after he completed a 44-yard pass to Sam DeSa.
Joseph Ayoob, the junior college transfer who narrowly lost a training camp battle for the starting job, faltered badly in relief, going 0-for-10 and sailing most of his passes high and out of reach.
The Bears finished the game with third string quarterback Steve Levy, a fullback last year. With six new starters on offense, the Bears were expected to show some growing pains. It was worse than that. They had trouble getting into the right formations, bungled hand offs, put the ball on the ground five times and were often unable to take advantage of open receivers.
"That was the sloppiest game I've ever seen offensively," Tedford said. "We'll go back and focus on the little things." Things were a bit better on defense, although Tedford said the team needs to do a better job of wrapping up and finishing on tackles. Despite it all, Cal came away with a win, running up 395 yards in offense while holding Sacramento State to 189. There were even a few highlight plays sprinkled in.
True freshman receiver DeSean Jackson scored in the first quarter on a 31-yard pass from Longshore and finished the Bears' scoring with a 49-yard punt return in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Marshawn Lynch made his debut as an every-down back and ran for 147 yards, the longest a 21-yard gainer.
Tim Mixon returned a punt 39 yards to set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Lynch.
And sophomore kicker Tom Schneider showed solid improvement over last year - kicking field goals from 49 and 27 yards.
But it all came against a Division I-AA opponent. Things should get tougher quick, with Cal playing at Washington in an early Pac-10 game next Saturday.
"We're going to need to play much better to compete with the people we're going to be playing," Tedford said. "I couldn't believe what was happening. I hope it was just first-game jitters."
Early in the game, the Bears often seemed on the verge of pulling away. At times Lynch appeared on the verge of breaking off a long gainer and receivers were often open downfield. Lynch, who grew stronger as the game went on, said the Hornet were doing a good job of anticipating his runs.
"They were blitzing to where we were running," he said. "We made adjustments." More frustrating to Tedford was the inability to get the ball in the hands of open wide receivers, often Jackson and Noah Smith. Next week, JC All-American Lavelle Hawkins and the lone returning starter, Robert Jordan, will play after sitting out Saturday.
"There are some weapons there," Tedford said. Now the Bears need a quarterback to connect with those speedy wideouts. Tedford was particularly disappointed with Ayoob, the state JC Offensive Player of the Year last season at City College of San Francisco. "He wasn't throwing the ball with a lot of confidence and authority," Tedford said. "He was kind of floating the ball."
Ayoob couldn't explain his flat performance "I made the right reads," he said. "But the ball wasn't coming out the way I wanted it to."
Longshore was 8-for-11 for 131 yards and the scoring toss to Jackson. Levy was 2-for-7 for 52 yards, with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Smith in the third quarter.
Tedford said he would name Levy or Ayoob as the starter for the Washington game after practice on Monday. "Those guys have to pick it up," he said. "There's no question that those two quarterbacks are going to get thrown into the reality of playing." Kyle Reed, a heralded freshman recruit out of McClymonds, was initially set to redshirt this year. He and freshman walk-on Bryan Van Meter could be thrown into the mix at some point. But Tedford went to lengths to say he wasn't giving up on Ayoob. "We'll stay behind him," he said. "It will be a learning lesson."